Dan discussed this in another thread. I'm not technical enough to explain it as well as he did. But IIRC, it has to do with oxygen getting trapped in the steel near the cutting edge. It really doesn't matter if the oxygen gets trapped elsewhere in the blade. But near the edge, it can lead to chipping. And it's practically impossible to detect prior to actually using the knife. That's why Dan put a lifetime warranty on Scrap Yard knives. And that's why I wouldn't hesitate to rely on the warranty. But before I did, I'd post some pics and check with the Dogs to make sure I wasn't overreacting.
If that is a bubble in the edge, I would probably check into it and see about warranty based on a defective "bubble".
But, if that blade damage was caused by rocks, stone or similar abuse (as I assume it is), I would still describe the rest of the damage as abuse.
Where it not for the bubble and assuming I am correct about the rest of the damage, I don't personally feel the rest of the damage is a warranty issue.
From what I can tell, the knife was abused and yet did NOT break.
Edge damage from abuse (intentional or not) should be expected IMO.
This is still a knife and not intended for chopping rocks!
As I tried to show above, rocks can be and often are harder than knife steel.
Even though some types of steel can break or bust rocks, that doesn't mean the steel is harder than the rock. It means the steel is tough enough to be subjected to use against rock without breaking.
Again, keep in mind that jack hammer pits, picks and rock chisels are subject to tip deformation as well. They also require sharpening and similar maintenance. But, they also don't have as acute an angle as a knife edge!
These steels can be "deformed" against many types of rocks. - Especially when sharpened to an edge to be used as a knife!
Although, I suppose it could be debated and there could be a gray area as to how much deformation is exceptable vs. how much abuse. Or what is exceptable "damage". Very debatable! And probably hard to prove how much or how hard the knife was hacked against hard materials.
That is why I strongly feel there should be an explanation included with any pictures showing this type of edge damage.
In general, I think misunderstandings exist about what should be expected from many types of knife steel and pictures of damaged blades without explanations could cause unfair frenzies about the quality and abilities of ANY knife steel.
Anyone who takes any type of steel including some of the hardest steels we know of like Tungsten Carbide and whacks it hard enough and often enough against certain types of "hard" rock are going to see damage of some sort - Deformation, denting, rolling, chipping and/or breaking!
There is no steel made that can't be damaged to some degree with certain types of abuse.
In all fairness to Dan and Scrap Yard, we should expect to hear about what was done to the knife to cause the damage before making harsh judgements and we should understand that edge deformation can and will happen even to SR-77 with certain types of knife abuse.
If that DF was used "heavily" against rocks or similarly hard materials, then I "could" possibly argue that it looks pretty decent (not including what appears to be a bubble).
In the knife world, denting and rolling is generally better than chipping, breaking or fracturing.
.
